


Change in Tempo

by Damalia (Achrya)



Series: BusStopVerse [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Cutesy, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Insecurity, Lolita, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-07 22:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6828472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Damalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco has an interest in Lolita fashion but he's not sure he wants to take that interest public. Jean offers support in...a very Jean way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Marco stood up a little straighter and, smoothing down down his skirt a little bit, stepped back into his bedroom. Jean was sitting cross legged on his bed and tapping away at the game he was playing on his phone, tongue poking between his lips. Marco cleared his throat and Jean’s head popped up immediately as the tinkling music coming from his phone cut off. He waited, holding his breath, as Jean’s eyes slowly swept over him from head to toe. Amber eyes widened slightly and lips pressed together as the seconds ticked by.

Marco knew what his boyfriend was seeing, had memorized every single detail time and time again while he’d been changing in the other room. 

This was the first time he'd had the full look together and the first time anyone at all had seen him like this; to say he was nervous was an understatement. He'd almost decided against letting Jean see him like this, afraid of the reaction he'd get and so aware of every tiny flaw.

Marco had...an interest in Lolita fashion. Assuming interested could be defined as ‘had a dozen or so dresses in the back of his closet’ and ‘had entertained the idea of going to meetups and cons but always chickened out’. He liked the outfits, liked the way he felt in them and how the style he prefered pushed the soft sweet look about as far as it could go. When he was alone he felt pretty in them, maybe even delicate...but when he thought about letting someone else see? Well then he felt like he looked ridiculous. 

Standing in front of Jean was no exception. 

His shoes were plain heeled mary-janes, black and polished to perfection, and his tights were lavender with white stripes. He was wearing a tiered skirt with a high waist that stopped about an inch below his knee, in the same lavender as his tights. Each of the three ‘layers’ was edged with a thin strip fabric that was slightly lighter in color and covered in hearts. There was a large bow at the waist and the silky petticoats underneath, to fill out the skirt and give it its bell shape, peeked out below the hem of his skirt to show just a hint of white lace. His white blouse was plain save the wide bell sleeves,which were all lace from the elbow down, and the high collar with it’s purple bow. 

The vest he worse over the blouse was the same lavender as everything else and was adorned with small white lace covered buttons in the front and laced with white ribbon in the back. He’d chosen a long dark purple wig then done it up into pigtails with the ends curled into bouncy corkscrews and held in place with more white ribbon, the ends of which dangled down to his shoulders. His makeup was simple, since his freckles actually worked in his favor with this, a little color on his cheeks and light color to his lips. 

There was a purse, a white fuzzy one that was shaped like a heart, to complete the look but it was sitting on his desk. 

After what felt like a painfully long time of Jean just staring silently Marco breathed out, shoulders slumping. This had been a bad idea and he’d been stupid for letting Jean talk him into it. He knew they were supposed to go to the Anime-con and that wearing one of his Lolita dresses had been his idea but as the day got closer he got more and more antsy about it. He’d finally decided to wear something else but Jean, stupid stupid Jean, had wanted to see the dress in order to see what Marco was so worried about. And he’d agreed because Jean was...Jean and always looked at him like he was the most amazing thing in the room and maybe he needed that sometimes.

But now he was just...looking at him. Blankly. 

“I’m going to change.” Marco muttered, very aware of himself in a way he’d never been in front of Jean before. 

Jean jerked back as if he’d been startled awake then shook his head. “Already? I...can I see the back first?”

He frowned then, biting his lip nervously, turned in a slow circle. When he was facing Jean again it was to find his boyfriend once again wearing that blank expression. He shifted anxiously before speaking, unwilling to let another awkward silence follow. 

“So? What are you thinking?” He was confident Jean wouldn’t lie to him and it was better to just nip the whole stupid thing in the bud and be done. 

“Honestly?” Jean asked slowly. “I’m sort of into this. A lot. Maybe.” 

Marco’s mouth dropped open. He had...not expected that. “What?” 

Jean cleared his throat, eyes darting away from him, and made a vague gesture towards nothing. “I mean. You’re just...really cute?”

“I am not cute.” Marco’s lips twitched up into a smile he didn’t really feel. “I’m nearly six feet tall wearing a Lolita dress. I look ridiculous.” 

Which was what it always came down to. He didn’t feel like he fit the image, more an awkward giraffe than someone elegant and dainty. He could kind of feel that way, when it was just him and the mirror, but when he thought about other people seeing him that feeling crashed and burned. 

“Is that why you backed out of going to that thing with Historia last month?” 

“It was a Street Fashion show. And I was sick.” 

He hadn’t been sick. 

Jean looked skeptical but shrugged it away. “I don’t see what the difference between this and anything else you’d wear is. You go outside in dresses all the time.”

That was true enough. He didn’t have a problem wearing a dress in public (pretty far from that, a good third of his wardrobe was dresses and skirt) but this was...more than that. It was probably all the same to Jean, who clearly thought he looked good in literally everything, but to him it wasn’t. 

He tugged on the end of his wig absently as he tried to order his thoughts a little. “It’s different. This is supposed to be...elegant and cute. Delicate, I guess, and not...like me. I’m so… I don’t know. I would stick out more than I usually do.” 

“You’re worried about sticking out?” Jean tilted his head to the side, brow furrowed. “Since when do you care about sticking out?” 

“I don’t.” Except when he did. He accepted that if he went out in a sundress people were going to look and, while he took that seriously, it wasn’t like a sundress was something he’d put a lot of time and effort into, altering to fit his height and proportions and worried about making look just right. There would be a lot more ‘putting himself out there’ for something like this. There wasn’t the same kind of…

It was just different. 

He wasn’t sure how to explain that to Jean when he could barely make it make sense to himself so he settled for a frown and a shrug. 

“Well I think you do look great.” And Marco believed him. How could he not when Jean was looking at him like that, amber eyes warm and focused and cheeks a little pink, like he saw something amazing. 

That was the look, albeit a little less nervous and frantic, that had made him give Jean his number to begin with. There were people who thought he was good looking and had hit on him or asked him out but no one looked at him like Jean did. 

He looked down at the shiny surface of his shoes, feeling much warmer all of a sudden. “I’m going to change, okay? Then we can order a pizza or something.” 

Jean hummed his agreement. 

\---

“Okay so. Here me out.” Were the first words out of Jean’s mouth, halting the at least a dozen questions Marco wanted to ask, when he stepped back into his bedroom.

He’d changed back into his jeans and  t-shirt and pulled his hair up into a ponytail, ready for a night with Jean and some movies or something. He’d managed to convince his parents to let Jean stay the night (as long as one of them slept on the couch downstairs and, honestly, that was fine. He wasn’t about to do anything with Jean with his mom and dad only a bathroom away and his brother right next door.) and he was looking forward to some peace and quiet and maybe some cuddling on the couch.

So he was not at all prepared to find Jean wearing one of his dresses and...looking kind of silly. It was a shade of green that didn’t really look all that great against the pale amber of Jean’s skin, covered in a tiny strawberry print and sporting a thick white ribbon around where it would have hit Marco’s waist, but was a bit lower on Jean, tied into a lopsided bow. It was droopy around the collar, didn’t fit Jean’s more narrow shoulders and arms right, the skirt wasn’t filled out so it was just sort of hanging like a deflated balloon, and the clip in Alice bow was so far to the side that it looked like it was doing to fall out at any moment. The strawberry print knee-highs that went with the dress were laying on his bed in a small ball. 

He didn’t laugh. He didn’t.

It was, honestly, sort of adorable. He wanted to take a picture.

Jean scowled. “Are you laughing?”

“N-no.” Marco stuttered, shaking his head. “No. Noooo. What….what are you doing in that?”

“Uh hu.” Jean sniffed as if he was offended. “Anyway. I was thinking I could, you know, dress up with you. Next to me there is no way anyone would think you look ridiculous. Not that you do, because you don’t at all so don’t think that’s what I meant because you looked beautiful, I think, but you didn’t think that and you should so mphh?”

Marco crossed to the center of the room where Jean was standing and pressed his mouth against his boyfriend’s, stopping the flow of words. He wrapped his arms around Jean to pull him closer, until their bodies were tight together, and deepened the kiss when Jean relaxed against him. He wasn’t exactly sure how they ended up with Jean leaning against his desk, long fingers tangled in his hair (elastic band lost to probably never be seen again knowing Marco’s luck), with Marco slotted between his legs, but when they broke apart to breathe he found himself smiling.

And a little flustered. The dress didn’t do much to hide how Jean’s body had reacted to the kiss. As soon as Marco moved away a little Jean’s hands dropped to cover his lap.

“Has anyone ever told you sometimes you’re kind of sweet? Under all the sarcasm, I mean.”

Jean’s nose wrinkled in response to Marco’s question. “No, and don’t start telling people that either.”

He laughed then looked Jean over again. “You’ll need a different dress. If you were serious, I mean?”

Was Jean serious? He didn’t look particularly serious in that dress but if he was, all Marco’s issues aside, he couldn’t pass that up. For one it was just too nice an offer to dismiss; he knew that as much as Jean liked seeing him dressed up there wasn’t any real appeal in doing it himself. And, second, well, it sounded sort of fun.

He’d never gotten a chance to really make someone else up. 

“If you wear yours I’ll wear a dress too.” Jean promised.

“I think…” He trailed off, looking towards his closet and mentally calling forth images of what he had that would be a good color on Jean then comparing against wigs and accessories and make up and they’d have to paint Jean’s nails and-

Jean made a worried noise. “Wait. Why are you smiling like that?” 

\---

The convention was busy, people and booths and displays seeming to fill all the available space. ; it was nearly impossible to move around without brushing against somebody. The excited chatter of the crowd was around ‘dull roar’ level but it was...almost pleasant. Marco had gone from nervous to excited pretty fast, forgetting about how worried he was in the face of so much to see and do. He’d dragged a bemused looking Jean to and fro, stopping to buy a few signed prints from one of his favorite artists, look at season DVDs for a few animes he’d heard about from other people, and finally to talk to a girl who liked his dress and had questions about it. 

She wasn’t as tall as he was but was probably about Ymir’s height and had opened the conversation with an excited squeal about how other tall loli’s were so rare and did he alter his own stuff. She’d just left, having giving him her email address, when someone shouted his name. 

He turned then waved when he saw Armin, long white cape flapping after him, bouncing towards them. Eren, in all black with green touches, was close behind. Marco noted the way the slightly mischievous look on Eren’s face melted into something faintly surprised when they got closer. 

“Huh.” He said, frowning. “You look...fine.” 

Jean, who the comment was directed at, crossed his arms over his chest. “How did you think I was going to look?”

“I was hoping for terrible.” Eren admitted as he held up his phone. Armin sighed loudly. “I had my phone ready to capture the event and everything.”

Armin rolled their eyes then smiled up at Jean. "You both really look great."

Marco looked over at Jean again, fighting to not laugh. Jean looked, in his opinion, very...cute. He was in all white and cream, from his flats to his lace edged and bow topped knee highs to his dress. The dress itself was white with a bell shaped tiered skirt. Each of the four tiers was ruffled and had a slightly longer layer of cream colored lace under. The bodice was laced in the front with a thick ribbon that was tied into a bow at the neckline. The sleeves were tight to the elbow then opened up into something that mimicked the skirt, ruffled layers of white and cream lace. 

There was a short cape over his shoulder, white and fur lined, tied with another ribbon and a miniature top hat, plain except for the lace ribbon around the bottom, pinned to his wig at an angle. Marco had ended up ordering something close to Jean’s hair color, a light ash brown, and curled it into tight ringlets. He was carrying a parasol as well, though at the moment it was closed and hanging from his wrist. 

Jean’s lips were pink, just a few shades darker than their natural color, there was a touch blush on his cheeks, and a hint of dark smoky gray brushed over his eyes. His nails were painted silver and, though no one could see them, they’d gone ahead and done his toenails too.

Marco was willing to admit that he’d taken his most over the top dress and (with his mother’s help) gleefully altered it to fit Jean. And maybe added to it a little to make it even more over the top. It wasn’t like this was something likely to occur again so he’d figured he might as well enjoy it. 

It had been fun. Jean had been surprisingly compliant during the process, letting Marco do his nails, color test make up on him, and play with his hair without a word. Aside from the times Marco had taken to trying to kiss the lipstick off of him. And those words hadn’t been complaints. He even thought that Jean might have enjoyed being able to sit back and be pampered during the testing and then again this morning. 

He’d looked pretty relaxed at least. You would have thought he was at a spa or something. 

There was also, maybe, a certain realization to looking at Jean, who wasn’t that much shorter than him, and seeing he still looked very cute. It had eased some of the nervousness in his stomach. 

“Sorry to disappoint.” Jean deadpanned. “Who are you two supposed to be?” 

Armin and Eren exchanged looks first with each other and then with Marco who just shrugged. Their cosplay was fine; Armin in mostly white, save the black collar of the shirt under his jacket, with thigh high black boots and Eren in black with green touches. Both had capes, though Eren’s was shorter and black with green lining, and swords at their hips. The only thing out of place as far as Marco could tell was the yellow stoned pendant around Armin's neck. They weren’t the ‘problem’, Jean was but they should have expected that. They’d known Jean for something like a decade so he would have thought they were aware that Jean’s taste ran more towards _Discworld_ than anything having to do with Anime-Con. 

“Yūichirō and Mikaela, from Owari no Seraph.” Armin supplied finally. Jean’s face remained blank. "You should watch, it's almost as gay as you."

Marco took a moment to be impressed at how Armin could become almost as toneless as Jean when they were so inclined before Jean was snorting. "Pretty sure that's actually impossible." 

Eren looked at Marco again.  “Why is he even here?”

Marco smiled and reached for Jean’s hand; his boyfriend squeezed lightly once their fingers were tangled together. “Moral support.” 

“And to disappoint you as much as possible” Jean added. “How’s that going, by the way?” 

“Why don’t we,” Armin said loudly while leveling a warning look at Eren. “Go check out that fanworks booth?” 

“Fanwork?” Jean echoed. 

Marco smirked and began tugging him towards the booth in question. “I’m about to change your whole outlook.” 


	2. Indulgent Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About swimsuits, panties, Marco’s regrets, and Jean…well. Jean. (This is pure silliness. And maybe a little meta?) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sometimes my AUs grow into unexpected places and characters kind of develop traits and…Anyway. Busstopverse had some growth last night and as an end result we have this small thing that isn't enough to be its own thing, imho. it references the Con so. Here you go.

 

“I need a break.” Marco declared, pushing away from his desk and stretching some. He hadn’t expected his homework to take so long and he was feeling a little brain fried. “You want something to drink?” 

Jean made a quiet noise that might have been a yes. Marco glanced at him, smiling slightly. Jean was stretched out on his bed, one hand propping up his head and the other tapping on the screen of his table; his expression was strangely pensive. 

Whatever he was working on seemed to be as consuming as Marco’s physics homework. Maybe they both needed a break. Marco was pretty sure he could think of a few ways they could occupy their time for a little while; this was one of the rare times his parents and brother were all outside of the house after all. Homework could wait a little while. 

Besides, Marco was of the opinion that making out was good for the brain. 

“Hey. Do bikinis really work on men?”

Marco blinked, all thoughts of drinks, homework, and other things completely derailing. He looked back at Jean to find his boyfriend still engrossed in his tablet. 

“Um. Like. Bikini cut underwear?” 

Of which Marco owned a few pair. They weren’t his preference (he’d come to the conclusion he was more of a boxer-brief and boy shorts kind of person) but he’d had an experimental phase and the sheer variety of styles and fabric types in his underwear drawer was proof of that. The summer after Freshman year had been an interesting time, full of internet purchases he never wanted to explain to his parents. 

But Jean didn’t know anything about that. There were certain comfort levels they had yet to attain and ‘surprise, sometimes I wear panties’ was one of those levels. As far as Jean knew Marco just had a collection of very tight and short shorts that he wore under his skirts. 

“No, like swimsuits.” 

Marco blinked again. Jean was, at the best of times, a little weird (but in an endearing way) but some other times… He craned his neck, trying to see what Jean was looking at (and half expecting some sort of bikini spread) but only got a glimpse of black and white panels before Jean was tilting the tablet away from him. 

It was enough. 

He sighed. “Are you looking at dirty doujinshi? Right now?”

Jean’s cheeks went pink. “No. Why would you ask that?”

Marco did occasionally regret that, when they’d gone to the anime-con together, he’d introduced Jean to the wide and occasionally (often) wild world of fanworks. Anime and manga weren’t really Jean’s thing, video games, fantasy novels, and Ren Faires were more up his alley, but he’d taken to the idea of ‘fan interpretation’ of things. 

Marco was pretty sure he’d caught Jean reading _The Hobbit_ fanfiction once or twice and he wasn’t saying he thought his boyfriend had fallen into the world of dirty doujinshi…but he sort of thought that. He was a lot less liberal with letting Marco see his tablet or phone lately and the number of times he’d seen browser windows hastily closed when he walked into Jean’s bedroom…

And he wasn’t judging that but…now? 

“Let me see.” He walked towards the bed, hand outstretched. Jean went from pink to white as a sheet. 

“I would honestly rather die.” He said it with complete seriousness but, when Marco was close enough, he handed over the device without complaint. 

Marco gave it a quick look, scrolling silently; it actually wasn’t porn though he wasn’t going to label it totally innocent either. Rather it was black and white sketches of characters from an anime they’d sort of watched together (’sort of’ because it had been another one of those rare empty house moments so focus hadn’t been completely on the screen)all dressed in various types of women’s swimsuits. 

Bikinis, more modest one pieces and ones with conveniently placed cutouts, a few that amounted to barely there straps…it really seemed to hit everything. The bulges were…generous. 

Marco handed the tablet back, eyebrow arched. “You’re weird.” 

Jean sighed deeply before slamming his face into the pillow, seemingly intent on smothering himself. Marco shook his head then headed back for the door, focus back on getting something to drink (and leaving Jean to his shame.) 

He hesitated before stepping into the hallway, considering comfort levels (and where letting your boyfriend see sort of dirty fanart you were looking at fell) for a moment. “If this had been about underwear I would have told you that I like boyshorts. Or those hipster ones.” 

“…wait. What?” 

**Author's Note:**

> I, much like Marco, went a teeny bit overboard when dressing Jean. Fight me. :P  
> The pendant Marco notes Armin wearing is an idea adopted (stolen?) from [Overmyfreckledbody ](http://overmyfreckledbody.tumblr.com/)as a way for Armin (who is genderfluid) to let other people know what the pronouns are that day without having to ask. Yellow for they/them, purple for He/him, and clear for She/her.
> 
>  
> 
> [Pictures of things that inspired the looks ](http://acharyadiako.tumblr.com/post/144236582970/images-that-helped-inspire-me)


End file.
